I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to agricultural implements and, more particularly, to a slurry distributor to divide and route liquid materials received from a common source evenly to a plurality of locations. Specifically, the present invention relates to a slurry distributor system that enables the even and equal metering of liquid manure to a plurality of outlets at different distances resulting in uniform placement or even distribution of material into the soil across a wide swath.
II. Related Art
Liquid manure spreaders are used in the transportation and application of liquid manure which is obtained generally from manure lagoons associated with the keeping of farm livestock and spread on agricultural fields. The liquid manure is generally in the form of a slurry of liquid and solid animal wastes produced from farming operations which can be pumped out of a lagoon and distributed.
Liquid manure spreaders generally include one or more tanks mounted on a chassis towed by a tractor. The tanks may be of rather large capacity and are normally connected to a plurality of spaced outlets which distribute the liquid manure into the ground, typically using soil injection tools. The liquid manure is usually pumped from the tanks into a central distribution manifold, which has a number of outlet openings. These openings, in turn, are connected by hoses to soil injection tools, or the like, located at spaced intervals which are at varying distances from the central distribution manifold. Generally, there is no control system to insure even distribution of the liquid manure to the several soil locations so that the manure flows unevenly from the hoses as the longer hoses to the more distant outlets exhibit more resistance to flow.
Attempts have been made to more evenly distribute sludge or manure to a plurality of distributed hoses. U.S. Pat. No. 7,509,977 B2 to Huffman uses rotating occluding baffles of different lengths to control back pressure at a plurality of outlets over a range of supply pressures. That system is meant to deal with supply pressures that vary widely and requires the changing of baffle lengths to accommodate different supply pressures.
Thus, there remains a need for a slurry distributor that enables equal proportioning through a plurality of outlets which is relatively simple in construction and requires little maintenance.